Disorders of metabolic activity of intestinal microflora in young children

The results of the study.
When analyzing the primary data on the 
quantitative and qualitative content of short-chain fatty acids in the feces of 
children (n=103), 2 types of metabolic profile were registered: anaerobic type - 

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in 70% of children and aerobic type - in 30% of children. Both types of changes 
in the functional activity of the microbiota were characterized by the presence of 
a tendency to decrease the absolute total content of short-chain fatty acids in 
feces relative to reference indicators with the most significant decrease in 
children with aerobic type. The revealed features seem to be associated with a 
decrease in the number and activity of representatives of obligate microflora, 
which is consistent with the data of other authors. 
When assessing the levels of acetic, propionic and butyric acids, which 
form the basis of the entire pool of short-chain fatty acids, the following results 
were obtained: with an anaerobic profile, there was a significant decrease in the 
levels of acetic and an increase in propionic and butyric acids; with an aerobic 
type, there was a significant increase in acetic and a decrease in propionic and 
butyric acids (p<0.05 when compared with reference values). 
These features of the spectrum of acids may be due to hypercolonization 
and increased activity of anaerobic flora with a predominance of butyric acid 
and propionic acid fermentation, characteristic of bacteria genera of bacteroids, 
propionobacteria, fusobacteria, eubacteria, and increased growth of clostridium, 
producers of propionic and butyric acids. And, accordingly, in the aerobic type - 
activation of aerobic microorganisms, representatives of facultative and residual 
microflora, producing mainly acetic acid. 
The anaerobic index, calculated as the ratio of the sum of the 
concentrations of all acids to the concentration of acetic acid, is the most 
important indicator of the state of the intestinal environment and reflects the 
ratio of anaerobic and aerobic, including facultative anaerobic microbiota 
populations. When evaluating it, a sharp shift of the index was registered 
towards negative values for the anaerobic type and into the zone of opposite 
values for the aerobic type (p<0.05 when compared with reference values for 
both acid profiles), which may indicate an increase in anaerobic or aerobic 
populations, respectively, against the background of a decrease in the activity of 

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